


I don't mind (I will come back a thousand times)

by thenoeychu



Series: You, Me, and Baby Make Three [1]
Category: Pacific Rim (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-07
Updated: 2018-12-07
Packaged: 2019-09-13 12:20:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,059
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16892499
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thenoeychu/pseuds/thenoeychu
Summary: The last photograph on her microSD is the double-bunk that had belonged to the Becket boys. There's nothing left of the photographs that had lined the walls; of the personal effects that once littered the room in ordered chaos.Here, in the silence, she allows herself to cry; curled on the top bunk, face pressed to the sheets Yancy last slept in.She doesn't know what tomorrow will bring. She doesn't know if she'll ever see him again. The world is ending and somehow, there's still a candle lit for him in the window of her heart.





	I don't mind (I will come back a thousand times)

**Author's Note:**

> Back in 2013, a fandom rp friend and I decided to explore a couple of what-if scenarios and it led to an AU called _You, Me, and Baby make Three_. I always told myself that I'd convert some of those tags into fanfic - so I might be 5 years too late, but what the hell.

#### Three years and four months after Knifehead wrecks Gipsy off the Miracle Mile of Anchorage, Tendo Choi proposes to Alison Spada of Munitions in the middle of the mess hall.

There's a cheesy love song in a language that Naomi Sokolov doesn't know playing over the PA System. And as the scene unfolds, all she can think is: Tendo and Alison are the biggest dweebs she has ever met in her entire life. And they are so, so ridiculously _in love_.

She wipes away a wayward tear when Alison finally stops laughing at Tendo's antics long enough to say: _Yes. Yes, Mr. Choi, I will make you the happiest man on Earth. It's only fair since I'm the luckiest woman on Earth_ — and the whole room explodes with applause.

Naomi thinks then: This is what they fight for. Moments like this. Affirmations of life and love and people. Because the war effort against the _kaiju_ is all about people. While they all come from different backgrounds and varying countries, they've all agreed to band together. Hopefully, that's enough to push back the tide of an impending Apocalypse.

And if her gaze wanders to where the Becket boys are congratulating themselves on successfully playing at back-up for their best friend, _well_. It's a happy day. Two of her favorite people are getting hitched as soon as someone manages to snatch up a priest. She's not going to think of anything else beyond that.

#### A little over a year later, the plug gets pulled on the PPDC's funding.

One by one the Shatterdomes set up along the Pacific Coast get closed or sold. She and a handful others forward an online campaign — and maybe it shouldn't surprise her. But it is actually mind-boggling how word spreads like wildfire.

The general sentiment is criticism: _How the U.N. thinks a Wall is going to save anyone I have no fucking idea. Did you guys see the way that latest Category 4 walked right through it like Japanese paper? I was there man, we were fucking lucky that Striker Eureka was still in town. Okay, fuck this, Internet generation. We pushed back for smaller things before and we got shit done, the PPDC needs our help. Spread the word._

It's a valiant effort. And while it does raise a substantial amount of money, it's not enough for them to keep the whole operation running.

They lose Los Angeles. And they lose the one in China. And Japan, and then Russia. It's disheartening but not unexpected, because these places are outside of what little jurisdiction the Marshal still has left. There's an agonizing week where they think that they're going to lose Anchorage, but the private buyer who signs on the deed turns out to be an old friend of Dr. Caitlin Lightcap from back in her D.A.R.P.A. days.

_My daughter was in San Diego the day the Beckets took down Clawhook. If it weren't for the Jaegers, the world would be overrun by kaiju. I only wish I could give more, Caitlin._

So they get to keep Anchorage. But it's relegated to little more than a housing facility than the base it was built to be. They all learn that if they continue operations, there's a lot of legal shit to wade through with the U.S. government. So as the rest of the PPDC pack up for Hong Kong, Naomi asks Alison Choi if she can get a ride to the old Jaeger Academy on Kodiak Island. She spends the evening walking through the Proving Grounds with her DSLR. And her last day is spent taking photos for a book that she had been hoping to write.

She knows it makes no sense dreaming up things like publishing a book to document everything that's gone on with the PPDC. But dreams like this are important. Especially as the world abandons the people who put themselves on the front lines.

The _kaiju_ are still coming. Dr. Gottlieb of K-Science stresses that they are running out of time. And for all that most brush the good doctor off, Naomi believes him.

This can't go on forever. So when it comes down to the wire, it's either humanity wins or lies down to die. And while she's scared for a future that her daughter might never see, she's glad to be on the side that continues to fight.

 

#### It's nearly midnight when she walks up to the heli-deck to hugs from Alison and Tendo as they say their goodbyes. She and little Yancy won't be going to Hong Kong, because the PPDC still needs her to talk to the press.

Alison is in tears as she hands Naomi little Theodore, because Ali's sister Brigit is still en route to Alaska. When Tendo gives a salute to someone off to Naomi's right, she hesitates to turn. Instead, she listens to the way Yancy Becket assures their daughter that he'll be home soon. _I just need to help LOCCENT out while they look after your Uncle Raleigh. You take care of your mom. Alright, kiddo?_

She doesn't tell him goodbye.

Instead she carries the son of her two closest friends in one arm and clasps tight the trembling hand of her little girl in the other. And together, they all watch as the choppers disappear from sight.

Later, Naomi wanders the Shatterdome long after the lights have switched to support. She asked Brigit if she could mind the kids, an unspoken request in her eyes for space to manage her grief.

Her feet bring her all over the facility and she commits every room to digital still frame. Because even if the book never happens she needs this. She needs something to do while the rest of her friends are off to make their last stand.

The last photograph on her microSD is the double-bunk that had belonged to the Becket boys. There's nothing left of the photographs that had lined the walls; of the personal effects that once littered the room in ordered chaos.

Here, in the silence, she allows herself to cry; curled on the top bunk, face pressed to the sheets Yancy last slept in.

She doesn't know what tomorrow will bring. She doesn't know if she'll ever see him again. The world is ending and somehow, there's still a candle lit for him in the window of her heart.

 

#### They lose the Kaidonovskys. And they lose the Weis. And as news filters through to them from Hong Kong, Naomi steps up to the podium with her cue cards in hand.

Stacker Pentecost had asked to speak with her personally. And when she had taken the phone from Dr. Lightcap, she couldn't help but shake. She's only ever spoken to the Marshal a total of two times before this.

_Herc Hansen's arm is shot. So, I will be joining his son in Striker Eureka._

_I need you to do me a favor, Miss Sokolov. Because I have read the work you've done outside of what we require you to do. And perhaps you are the best person to tell our story._

She stands before the press in a pair of slacks, a black turtleneck, and a jacket bearing the PPDC logo right over her heart. After a moment to gather herself, she addresses all those who are there to listen.

_We stand in the shadow of a countdown to the end of the world. And in this time of fear and despair, there are those of us who continue to believe that no matter where we are, not one of us stands alone. That we can hold on to each other. That we should._

_You will have heard that earlier today in Hong Kong, the jaegers Crimson Typhoon and Cherno Alpha fell in the battle of Victory Bay. That half a world away, there are brave men and women who cannot grieve. Because they have no other option but to stand firm in the face of the creatures that have forced us behind walls of concrete and steel. Walls_ , she says much softer, _that are little better than paper._

_Today, these brave souls will bring the fight where we cannot. And I cannot tell you how much I wish I were there to stand right alongside them._

_As of this moment, only two jaegers are left. I cannot tell you what will happen if these last two fall. But I ask that those of you who can find it in yourselves to do so — that you hold fast to the belief that we can still win._

_That we will win._

_This world is not just ours. It belongs to our children, and our children's children._

_And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why we fight._

 

#### Brigit Spada is a sobbing mess when word arrives of a nuclear explosion breaking water close to the Breach. There is speculation that perhaps the mission has failed. But Naomi sits in silence, her phone on the table beside her as she strokes her daughter's hair.

_If they failed, we would have gotten word from Tendo._

For the next hour, there is only one feed airing across all channels: the calm waters of the Pacific, growing bluer as the sun rises in the East, off-screen.

When they confirm that the Marshal is dead — that Chuck Hansen went down with him at the end, her daughter is inconsolable. There is no word yet on the pilots of Gipsy Danger. But it is so very hard to keep from crying.

Hope feels like seafoam carried away with each throb of those same Pacific waves.

Naomi buries her face in little Yancy's shoulder and they hold onto each other for a long, long while. And when the people outside start to cheer, she lifts her eyes to see the first of the escape pods, Mako's figure tiny against a backdrop of the blue-green sea. Waiting for the second escape pod to rise to the surface, is the longest, most agonizing minute of Naomi's life.

_He doesn't look like he's breathing. Why is everyone cheering if he isn't breathing._

And then Raleigh is awake.

And she knows. They've won.

#### It's three years to the day since the closure of the Breach; a decade since the Becket brothers rescued her and her daughter from a collapsing building, in the aftermath of Clawhook's rampage in San Diego.

And right this very instant, Naomi Sokolov is coming home from a date.

His name is Greg, and he's a photographer who got in touch with her after her book was published. They're currently colleagues at her place of work — a satellite office of a major broadsheet.

They're laughing as he walks her to the porch of her house on the Anchorage Shatterdome grounds. Greg is sweet, makes her laugh, and they can talk for hours about journalism. He's also a big geek whose closest encounter with a _kaiju_ is a visit to the museum arm of the Kodiak Island Facility. They spent an afternoon last month sitting in on one of Newt Geiszler's lectures on _kaiju_ remains. It's something Naomi can't help but appreciate. After spending so much time around people whose lives are built around a military set-up, it's nice to be around someone who is as normal as she is.

So yeah, Greg's a great guy. And when he leans in to give her a goodnight kiss, she lets him press his mouth to hers.

She has made peace with the fact that she has yet to meet a man alive who will eclipse what she feels for Yancy Becket. But it's been ten years, and a girl can only wait so long for something that is likely not meant to be. This isn't settling for someone less. It's learning to move on.

She waits on the porch until Greg's car disappears past the far fence before she turns to head inside. Raleigh had offered to watch little Yancy, even if her daughter protests that she's twelve and doesn't need a sitter. So Naomi assumes that the two are probably up in Yancy's room marathoning _Adventure Time_ , if not asleep because it's about half past midnight.

She does not expect to see her daughter's father wide awake in her living room. She doesn't expect to find him thumbing thoughtfully through her book.


End file.
